Fifteen Candles
by daydreamer-022
Summary: [COMPLETE] One-shot. How will Lilly react when her best friend and brother are too wrapped up in each other to remember her 15th birthday?


Happy Birthday to... ME!!! That's right folks, it's my birthday and you guys are getting the presents!  
  
I wrote this to put up especially today, in honor of this day. It's a birthday fic, and since they have already pretty much covered Mia and Michael's birthdays in the books, this one is about Lilly's.  
  
It's set somewhere between the fourth and fifth book. And it's loosley based on the great movie "Sixteen Candles" hence the title.  
  
This is only a one shot, there will be NO MORE chapters.  
  
Disclaimer: Meg Cabot owns all characters.  
  
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Lilly sat at the breakfast table eating her usual breakfast of Rice Bubbles. It felt like every other day, only she knew it wasn't.  
  
Today was the day Lilly Moscovitz turned fifteen, and although her best friend hadn't so much as mentioned her birthday recently, Lilly assumed it was because Mia was planning a big surprise for her.  
  
Lilly's older brother Michael bounded into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. He's always in a good mood these days, ever since he began dating Lilly's best friend Mia. It's made him more tolerable to be around for Lilly, but it's also annoying for her to have to share her best friend with her brother.  
  
"Why are you going down so early?" Lilly asked him as he bounded towards the front door. "Mia doesn't usually arrive for another ten minutes."  
  
Michael stopped bounding and faced his sister. "I know, but she might be early. I'll see you down there."  
  
"Whatever," Lilly responded, a little surprised that he hadn't even bothered to wish her a happy birthday.  
  
"Maybe he and Mia have something planned," she thought to herself. "Maybe that's why he left early."  
  
Lilly's parents walked into the kitchen then, their arms laden with presents and cards sent from family and from themselves.  
  
The time it took Lilly to get through all of the presents made her a few minutes late to meet the limo downstairs. But when she opened the door to get in, she could see they hadn't minded waiting.  
  
Mia and Michael were all over each other as usual, as if devouring each other for breakfast, and Lars was sitting there pretending not to notice.  
  
Lilly sat next to the busy couple, feeling uncomfortable and unwelcome. But this was usual for Mia and Michael. It's like they just can't get enough of each other. Whenever they're in a relatively secluded place, it's like they're in their own little make-out world. And when they're not in a secluded place, they find one.  
  
Which is exactly what they did as soon as the limo stopped outside school and Lars pryed them apart, announcing their arrival. They walked off to find an empty, unlocked classroom, or a bush to sit behind.  
  
Lilly, alone, went in search of Tina, Shameeka, Ling Su and Boris.  
  
"Happy Birthday!" they cried when she found them.  
  
"Thanks," she blushed, glad that at least some of her friends had bothered to say it.  
  
* * *  
  
By the time lunchtime rolled around, neither Mia nor Michael had shown any signs of even remembering Lilly's birthday, let alone having something planned for it.  
  
She sat down at the caf table next to Mia, planning on saying something subtle like, "Is there anything special about today?" when Michael came up to the table and spoiled it for her.  
  
"Hey," he said, more to Mia than anyone else. "Don't you have some... uh, research to do before Biology or something?"  
  
Mia stared at him blankly for a second. "Research? Oh! Research! Right, yeah, we'd better go do that, er, research. See you guys later."  
  
Mia stood up and followed Michael out of the caf.  
  
"Geez," Tina stifled back a laugh. "They're not even subtle about it anymore!"  
  
"Yeah. Hey, did Mia mention anything to you about... about my birthday?" Lilly asked her in a quiet tone, not wanting anyone to over hear that she thought her best friend had forgotten her birthday.  
  
"No. Why? Oh, my God! Has she forgotten?" Tina gasped.  
  
"No, no, I'm sure she hasn't forgotten, she just... hasn't said anything about it yet. That's all."  
  
"Don't cover up for her, Lilly. If she had anything planned, I'd know about it. I can't believe she forgot! I mean, I know she's been wrapped up in Michael recently, but still! That's no excuse!"  
  
"Don't say anything about it to anyone, will you? Especially not Mia. I think I'd rather she doesn't know she's forgotten at all. And it's not like it's a big deal, right?"  
  
Lilly was trying to be strong, but Tina could tell she was hurt. She could hear it in her voice, and she could see it in her eyes. And Lilly's eyes never gave anything away.  
  
* * *  
  
Mia and Michael were already in the G&T room by the time Lilly arrived. They were sitting so close together they could have shared a seat. And they didn't even acknowledge Lilly as she sat down, they were too busy whispering sweet nothings into each others ears. They were so close to cutting the PDA line that Lilly was sure they were going to forget all about Michael's dislike of Public Displays of Affection and begin making out right in front of everyone.  
  
But surprisingly, they held back.  
  
With five minutes left of the class to go, Lilly was busy planning the next episode of 'Lilly Tells It Like It Is', Mia and Michael were pretending to be studying for Mia's upcoming Algebra test, and Boris was stepping out of the supply closet to check that Mrs. Hill was still in the teachers lounge.  
  
Seeing that she was, he pulled out his violin and began playing 'Happy Birthday' to Lilly on it. The whole class sang along, except Mia and Michael, who sat there like dumbstruck pigeons.  
  
Just as the song was ending, Mia whispered to Michael, "Oh, my God! I totally forgot it was today! Why didn't you remind me?"  
  
"I forgot too," Michael whispered back. "She's going to kill us."  
  
Boris finished playing and brandished a bouqet of flowers from the supply closet and handed them to a slightly embarrassed Lilly.  
  
"Thanks, Boris," Lilly said as he sat down on her other side.  
  
"Uh, Lilly," Mia tried to get her attention, but Lilly either didn't hear her or she was ignoring her.  
  
"These flowers are beautiful," Lilly continued thanking Boris.  
  
"Lilly!" Mia said a little louder, finally getting a slight acknowledgement that she'd been heard.  
  
"Happy Birthday!" Mia and Michael both said at the same time.  
  
"Don't even bother," Lilly said, turning back to the boyfriend who'd actually remembered.  
  
"Lilly, come on. We didn't forget. Well, not exactly. We knew it was coming up, but we just forgot it was today. We're really sorry," Mia pleaded with her, while Michael sat next to her looking guilty too.  
  
"Whatever."  
  
Mia turned back to Michael. "Oh, God, she hates us! I can't believe we forgot! What are we going to do?"  
  
The bell rang and they had to leave, before they could even decide what they could do to make it up to Lilly.  
  
* * *  
  
As soon as the final bell rang, marking the end of the school day, Mia went in search of Michael, deeming fixing things with Lilly more important than Princess Lessons.  
  
"So what should we do?" she asked him when she found him by his locker. "She hasn't spoken to me since G&T."  
  
"Yeah, me neither. I dunno, but knowing Lilly, she'll be pretty hurt by it."  
  
"I don't blame her. What kind of best friend and brother are we? Clearly not very good ones."  
  
"Well," Michael said, a plan forming in his mind. "We didn't forget entirely. I mean, we got her her present ages ago. How about we just go see her, give her the present and explain that we didn't forget."  
  
"Do you think she'll even speak to us?"  
  
"There's only one way to find out. Come on." Michael grabbed her hand and walked her in the direction of the waiting limo.  
  
* * *  
  
Armed with Lilly's birday present, which had been kept at the Loft, Mia and Michael walked into his apartment in search of the birthday girl.  
  
They found her on the couch watching cartoons, something Lilly very rarely did since she strongly believed you lost IQ points from doing it.  
  
"Hey, Lil," Mia said softly from the doorway, clutching Michael's hand for support.  
  
"Fine," Lilly said,standing up. "I'll leave, you guys can have the room all to yourselves. I won't disturb you."  
  
"No, wait, we don't want you to leave," Michael said quickly.  
  
"Yeah, we want to give you this." Mia held out a rather large, square shaped box wrapped in bright blue paper and accompained by a giant pale blue bow.  
  
"What is it?" Lilly asked, not believing that it could be a present for her, since there hadn't been enough time since school ended to go shopping for one.  
  
"It's your birthday present, silly," Mia told her. "We got it ages ago. Listen, we didn't forget, well, not entirely anyway. We knew it was coming up, but we've just been a little preoccupied recently and it slipped our minds that it was today. But we're really sorry, and we're going to make an effort to be... less preoccupied, especially around you."  
  
"You mean you'll keep your hands to yourselves and actually socialise with your friends?"  
  
Michael glanced at Mia quickly and smiled. "We'll try."  
  
"So will you accept our apology and open your present?" Mia asked her.  
  
"I guess so," Lilly said with a smile, before thanking them and taking the package.  
  
Inside was a brand new, hi-tech video camera for her to record episodes of her show on.  
  
"Wow," she gasped, taking in all the shiney silverness of the camera, which was easily better than the one she was using now. "This is too much, you guys."  
  
"Are you kidding?" Mia asked. "Only the best for the bestest best friend and sister we have!"  
  
"Yeah, but it must have cost a..."  
  
"Hey, don't even worry about it. We saved up."  
  
"Well, thanks guys."  
  
Mia sat down and smiled, a weight having been lifted off her shoulders.  
  
* * *  
  
The next morning, Lilly opened the limo door to find Mia and Michael in their usual position. She hopped inside and they broke apart.   
  
"Oh, sorry, Lil," Mia said. "How are you this morning?"  
  
"It's ok, you know. I can't ask a leopard to change it's spots. Just don't go forgetting any other important dates."  
  
"Ok, we won't," Michael said, reaching for his girlfriend again.  
  
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There we go, it was pretty pointless, but just a bit of fun.  
  
Hip hip hooray!!! 


End file.
